Redeeming the Gospel: The Christian Faith Reconsidered

(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010)

 For many people today, the Christian gospel as traditionally articulated has become irrelevant and meaningless. This, combined with developments in biblical scholarship and Christian thought since the time of the Protestant Reformation, makes it necessary to rethink our understanding and conceptualization of the gospel. Redeeming the Gospel examines the central themes traditionally associated with Lutheran theology, including especially law and gospel, the work of Christ, and the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, in order to deconstruct and reconstruct our understanding of the gospel so that it may be proclaimed in a way that responds to the needs and concerns of our world today while nevertheless remaining grounded in biblical teaching.  SUMMARY

Fortress Introduction to Salvation and the Cross 

(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007)

In this masterful survey and analysis of 2000 years of Christian reflection on salvation, theologian David Brondos lays bare the diverse and even competing understandings, their social context and development, and their strengths and weaknesses. Concentrating on eleven of the most important figures, Brondos unfolds each as pursuing a distinctive story of salvation or atonement. The eleven figures include Isaiah, Luke, Paul, Irenaeus, Gregory of Nyssa, Anselm, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Albrecht Ritschl, Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, Jon Sobrino, and Rosemary Radford Ruether. SUMMARY

Paul on the Cross: Reconstructing the Apostle’s Story of Redemption

 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006) 

Even as theologians and others have become more critical of classic theories of atonement, Brondos maintains, biblical scholars have continued to understand Paul’s soteriology based on the language and categories of a thousand years later. In this vital volume he draws the theological consequences of the “new perspective” on Paul for our understanding of the meaning and efficacy of Jesus” death.

Paul, says Brondos, understood Jesus’ death primarily as the consequence of his mission of serving as God’s instrument to bring about the awaited redemption of Israel, in which Gentiles throughout the world would also be included. For Paul, Jesus’ death is salvific, not because it satisfies some necessary condition for human salvation as most doctrines of the atonement have traditionally maintained, nor because it effects some change in the situation of human beings or the world in general, but because God responded to Jesus’ faithfulness unto death by raising him, ensuring that all the divine promises of salvation would be fulfilled through him.

Jesus’ death forms part of an overarching story culminating in the redemption of Israel and the world; it is this story, and in particular what precedes and follows Jesus’ death on the cross, which makes that death redemptive for Paul.  SUMMARY

The Letter and the Spirit: Discerning God’s Will in a Complex World 

(Lutheran Voices Series; Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2005) 

This book offers biblical principles for addressing difficult ethical questions that Christians face today. Written in an accessible way, Brondos seeks to help readers discern the principles behind biblical prescriptions and interpret these in light of concern for human wholeness and well being. Helps Lutheran Christians reflect on what it means to look to Scripture for answers to complex problems.  SUMMARY

Sígueme: Preparando luteranos para la confirmación y el discipulado 

(St. Louis: CPH, 1996)

15 lessons for the instruction of new members in the Lutheran Church. It is also ideal for confirmation. Only available in Spanish. SUMMARY

Sources of Authority in the Church: Lutheran Traditions in North American Contexts

Editor and Author of Introduction

(Minneapolis: Lutheran University Press, 2012)

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) understand the Christian Scriptures as authoritative. Nevertheless, the fact that Scripture must inevitably be interpreted means that, as decisions are made in the church, it is also necessary to look to other sources of authority, including tradition, experience, reason, history, and science, as well as our creeds and confessions and our Lutheran churches and structures. What are the different ways in which we have understood and made use of these and other sources of authority in light of the normative authority granted to Scripture as the written Word of God? How should Lutherans understand and make use of those sources of authority today, and how do these sources relate to Scripture? Can we agree on what those sources of authority are and how they should relate to one another in the life of the church? How can we deepen our understanding of the various sources of authority in the church and make better use of them today in addressing the many difficult questions and challenges we face? Papers presented by members of the Association of Teaching Theologians of the ELCA/ELCIC address both how the various sources of authority have been used in the past in decision-making processes and how this might be done in the future.  SUMMARY